A Creative Arts Campus

The proposed new Arts Campus (Click for enlarged image)

Last Sunday the Vice-Chancellor of Umeå University Göran Sandberg gave a presentation at the School of Design on the proposed ‘Arts Campus’ that will be built along the bank of the Umeå River that runs through the middle of the city. HUMlab will have a role to play in the creative environment that is in the final planning stages now and should be open to students in two or three years. The architecture school will be open next year. A video (in Swedish) of the Vice Chancellor speaking about the Arts Campus can be seen on the web, and in it he describes HUMlab as a “world class environment for meetings in Information Technology, Humanities and other subjects”. HUMlab will be connected to the Art Gallery and Art School with a possible presence on the campus itself as well. As the Vice-Chancellor describes in the video, one can never administer creative work, but rather one can administer good places for creative meetings and work. The new Arts Campus is planned to be a place for creative people to meet and work. It sounds to me a lot like the ideas that have made HUMlab what it is today.